Historical_Background_And_Civil_War

Historical Background And Civil War Before colonisation, towards the end of the 19th century, most of what is now Rwanda was a monarchy ruled by a king of the Nyiginya dynasty. Social stratification was based on socio-economic criteria; in other words, on the type of work favoured by the members of the group. Thus the Hutus tended to be farmers, the Tutsis were stockbreeders and the Twa were hunters or potters. But given the complex ancestral history, these were by no means exclusive categories. The Tutsis were not necessarily dominant, nor the Hutus their subjects (pp 86-87). Rwanda has been a Tutsi kingdom from 16th to the last quarter of the 19th century. In 1890 it came under German rule. After the First World War in 1919 it was administered by Belgium under the League of Nations Mandate System. Then after 1945 it became a UN trust territory. In 1959 the Hutu majority overthrew the Tutsi kingdom and proclaimed Rwanda a Republic. Belgium recognized its independence on July 1, 1962. In 1963 Rwanda witnessed an invasion by Tutsi exiles, which resulted in their large-scale massacre at the hands of the Hutu. In July 1973 Maj. General Juvenal overthrew the government in a bloodless coup. The rwanda, tutsi, people, under, un, rule, july, hutu, government, tutsis, troops, rwandan, refugees, peace, patriotic, overthrew, million, mandate, majority, kingdom, installed, hutus, front, french, ethnic, century, belgium, august, after, about, 19th, 1994, 1973, zone, zaire, world